Video: Equalizing the room mics

Room mics glue the sound of the drum kit together by making it sound like a single element instead of individual drums. They don't usually need a lot of EQ to do the job, but let's look at a couple scenarios where EQ can really help the sound. Let's listen to the drum kit first of all without the room mics. (Music playing) Let's listen with the room mics now. (Music playing) And if we even push the room mics a little further, so we here more of the room this is what it sounds like.

In this course, author Bobby Owsinski reveals industry tips, tricks, and techniques for producing professionally mixed audio on any digital audio workstation. He offers recommendations for setting up an optimal listening environment, highlights the most efficient ways to set up and balance a mix, and shows how to build a powerful sound with compression. The course also explains how to master the intricacies of EQ; incorporate reverb, delay, and modulation effects; and generate the final mix.

Equalizing the room mics

Room mics glue the sound of the drum kit together by making it sound like asingle element instead of individual drums.They don't usually need a lot of EQ to do the job, but let's look at a couplescenarios where EQ can really help the sound.Let's listen to the drum kit first of all without the room mics.(Music playing)Let's listen with the room mics now.(Music playing)And if we even push the room mics a little further, so we here more of the roomthis is what it sounds like.

(Music playing)The room mics actually give the sound of the drum kit a lot more ambience anda lot of times this is used instead of reverb, because it's a little more of a pure sound.Now it all depends on the sound of the room that you have and the kind of micsthat you're using, because sometimes this can actually be a bad sound that youdon't really want and sometimes just a little bit goes a long way.

Anyway, let's EQ it to make it sound a little bit better.So let's listen first of all to the room mics by themselves.(Music playing)It's kind of a bland sound by itself and you can hear the leakage of the bassguitar, but not to worry. That actually adds to the sound and it's not somethingthat you should be afraid of.We never worry about leakage when it comes to recording and mixing, and if weknow how to do it we can actually make all the leakage work in our favor andthat's basically what we're doing with the room mics.

The best way to add the room mics first of all is just bring it up until itseems to glue the whole kit together and you hear a little bit of theambience of the room. So let's try that.(Music playing)Now what happens there is all of a sudden we can hear especially on the snaredrum where now the snare sounds a little more tight into the kit than sittingindividually by itself.

And now we can make this sound even a little bit better by adding some EQ.So let's go over and bring up our trusty 4-Band native EQ and the first thingwe're going to do is add the high- pass filter again, because the high-passfilter is going to get rid some of the low-end stuff that isn't reallyhelping us, and again, that might be things like truck traffic outside or itcould be footsteps.So let's go to 12db per octave, and bring it up to somewhere around 80.(Music playing)Okay, let's solo the room and have a listen.

(Music playing)Now if you have big speakers you hear that immediately; if you have smallspeakers or you are listening with headphones you might not hear anything at all.And that's the problem that happens with low end.Lot of times you can't hear what's happening and just about the time you beginto hear, it's really too much.So you have to be very careful whenever you're doing anything to the low end.

But just to exaggerate things so you can hear, let's bring it up to maybe 200.Now let's have a listen.(Music playing)You can hear a lot of the low-end from the bass and from the kick goes away.We actually want the sound the kick in the room sound though.So again, we'll just bring this down.It's always a good idea to have this high -pass filter in at least somewhere, andagain, when in doubt put it at 40 or even 35H. Even if you can't hear it, it isreally going to help the sound in the long run.

The next thing we want to do is add a little bit of sparkle to everything andof course the way we do that is with just a little bit of EQ and bring it up at 10K or so.Just add a few db.Actually I'm going to exaggerate things so you can really hear it.So this is a lot more than I normally add, but now you hear it.(Music playing)What we're going to do is back this down a little bit.Once again depending on the speakers that you have you might hear 10K reallydistinctly or you might not.

When in doubt, add less.(Music playing)Let's listen in the track.(Music playing)So to sum it up, you don't need much EQ in the room mics to do the job.So listen to the drum kit while EQ-ing, add a high-pass filter if the bottomneeds some more definition, and finally add a little bit of 10K and either addsome definition to the kit or emphasize the sound of the room.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.